Cultivate Your Emotional Garden of Greatness

If you want to live with more purpose, passion, and power, then cultivate your emotional garden of greatness. Plant the seeds of emotional strength you want more of, like love, curiosity, and confidence. Pull the weeds of negative emotions you want less of, like disappointment, anger, and fear.

“Keep cultivating the kinds of plants you want and pull the weeds as soon as you notice them. Let me offer you ten emotional seeds you can plant in your garden. If you nurture these seeds by focusing on feeling what you want to feel every day, you will hold yourself to a standard of greatness. These seeds create a life that flourishes and fulfills its highest potential.”

1. Love and Warmth

It’s hard to stay cold when you’re practicing warmth. And your warmth rubs off on others. And you get more of what you give in a Karma kind of way.

“The consistent expression of love seems to be able to melt almost any negative emotions it comes in contact with. If someone is angry with you, you can easily remain loving with them by adopting a core belief such as this marvelous one from the book A Course in Miracles: all communication is either a loving response or a cry for help. If someone comes to you in a state of hurt or anger, and you consistently respond to them with love and warmth, eventually their state will change and their intensity will melt away.”

2. Appreciation and Gratitude

We often don’t know what we’ve got until it’s gone. Don’t let the chance to feel the full power of what you already have, slip through your fingers.

“I believe that all of the most powerful emotions are some expression of love, each directed in different ways. For me, appreciation and gratitude are two of the most spiritual emotions, actively expressing through thought and action my appreciation and love for all the gifts that life has given me, that people have given me, that experience has given me. Living in this emotional state will enhance your life more than almost anything I know of. Cultivating this is cultivating life. Life with an attitude of gratitude.”

3. Curiosity

Cultivating your curiosity breathes new life into old things, and you can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

“If you really want to grow in life, learn to be as curious as a child. Children know how to wonder – that’s why they’re so endearing. If you want to cure boredom, be curious. If you’re curious, nothing is a chore; it’s automatic – you want to study. Cultivate curiously, and life becomes and unending study of joy.”

4. Excitement and Passion

Do you remember a time in your life when you sprang out of bed, or your days were full of zest? You can choose to live with passion and purpose, and you can cultivate excitement in your daily routines and experiences.

“Excitement and passion can add juice to anything. Passion can turn any challenge into a tremendous opportunity. Passion is unbridled power to move our lives forward at at a faster tempo than ever before. To paraphrase Benjamin Disraeli, man is only truly great when he acts from the passions. How do we ‘get’ passion? The same way we ‘get’ love, warmth, appreciation, gratefulness, and curiosity – we decide to feel it! Use your physiology: speak more rapidly, visualize images more rapidly, move your body in the direction you want to go. Don’t just casually sit and think. You can’t be filled with passion if you’re slumping over your desk, breathing shallowly, and slurring your speech.”

5. Determination

The power of determination will get you over the humps and hurdles of your day, and it will see you through your most amazing challenges.

“All of the above emotions are invaluable, but there is one that you must have if you’re going to create lasting value in this world It will dictate how you deal with upsets and challenges, with disappointment and disillusionment. Determination means the different between being stuck and being struck with the lightning power of commitment. If you want to get yourself to lose weight, make those business calls, or follow through on anything, ‘pushing’ yourself won’t do it. Putting yourself in a state of determination will. All your actions will spring from that source, and you’ll just automatically do whatever it takes to accomplish your aim. Acting with determination means making a congruent, committed decision where you’ve cut off any other possibility.”

6. Flexibility

Flexibility is freedom. Flexibility is the key to rolling with the punches, bouncing back from setbacks, and rising above your circumstances.

“If there’s one seed to plant that will guarantee success, it’s the ability to change your approach. In fact, all those Action Signals – those things you used to call negative emotions – are just messages to be more flexible! Choosing to be flexible is choosing to be happy. Throughout your life there will be times when there are things you will not be able to control, and your ability to be flexible in your rules, the meaning you attach to things, and your actions will determine your long-term success or failure, not to mention your level of personal joy. The reed that bends will survive the windstorm, while the might oak tree will crack. If you cultivate all of the above emotions, then you’ll surely develop confidence.”

7. Confidence

What if you could feel unstoppable on a daily basis? Imagine how great your day would be if your were teeming with confidence. When your confidence flows your power shows. It shows in how you walk and how you talk. Your confidence will help you operate at a higher level and it will put new possibilities within your grasp.

“Unshakable confidence is the sense of certainty we all want. The only way you can consistently experience confidence, even in environments and situations you’ve never previously encountered, is through the power of faith. Imagine and feel certain about the emotions you deserve to have now, rather than wait for them to spontaneously appear someday in the far distant future. When you’re confident, you’re willing to experiment, to put yourself on the line. One way to develop faith and confidence is simply to practice using it. If I were to ask whether you’re confident that you can tie your own shoes, I’m sure you could tell me with confidence that you can. Why? Only because you’ve done it thousands of time! So practice confidence by using it consistently, and you’ll be amazed at the dividends it reaps in every area of your life.”

8. Cheerfulness

Getting your grump on takes your power away, but cultivating your cheerfulness brings a sense of play to your day.

“When I added cheerfulness to my list of most important values, people commented, ‘There’s something different about you.’ You seem so happy. I realized that I had been happy, but I hadn’t told my face about it! There’s a big difference between being happy on the inside, and being outwardly cheerful. Cheerfulness enhances your self-esteem, makes life more fun, and makes the people around you feel happier as well. Cheerfulness has the power to eliminate the feelings of fear, hurt, anger, frustration, disappointment, depression, guilt, and inadequacy from your life. You’ve achieved cheerfulness the day you realize that no matter what’s happening around you, being anything other than cheerful will not make it better.”

9. Vitality

What if you could feel strong all day long? A sense of vitality can lift you to new levels of personal power and radiance.

“Contrary to popular belief, sitting still doesn’t preserve energy. The truth is, that’s usually when you feel most tired. The human nervous system needs to move to have energy. As you move, oxygen flows through your system and that physical level of health creates the emotional sense of vitality that can help you to deal with virtually any negative challenge you could have in your life. So realize that a sense of vitality is a critical emotion to cultivate in order to handle virtually any emotions that come up in your life, not to mention the critical resource in experience consistent passion.”

10. Contribution

When we have a sense of contribution, we amplify our feelings of empowerment, as well as our feelings of fulfillment. Connecting to the greater good brings with it a powerful sense of abundance.

“Don’t all into the trap, though, of trying to contribute to others at your own expense – playing the martyr won’t give you a true sense of contribution. But if you can consistently give to yourself and others on a measurable scale that allows you to know that your life has mattered, you’ll have a sense of connection with people and a sense of pride and self-esteem that no amount of money, accomplishments, fame, or acknowledgement could ever give. A sense of contribution makes all of life worthwhile. Imagine what a better world it would be if all of us cultivate a sense of contribution!”

Power is the ability to use strength quickly. Your personal power is the ability to take action.

When you cultivate powerful emotions you grow your strength, flexibility, and resilience from the inside out.

When you combine feelings of gratitude with confidence and passion, you tap into your limitless reservoir of personal power.

Use the 10 Emotions of Power to build your emotional intelligence and practice your habit of feeling great.